Starting a freshwater aquarium?

Question

I want to start an aquarium and I need some advice. I plan on getting a 20 gallon glass aquarium. I do want some live plants but I don't want to go over board since I'm unexperienced with them. Just a few and then add some nice fake ones. For the plants I'm not sure what easy starter ones would be the best. I've seen grass and clover and I would also like some tall plants but I'm not sure if these would be the best. Next, I'm not sure what type of gravel to get I definately don't want sand but other than that what sould I get and what color would you recommend. The type of fish I definatly want to put in the tank would be a betta and then I can't decide between these: Platies, zebra danios, cherry barbs, cory cats, gold barbs, white clouds, swordtails, lemon tetra, blood fins, glowlights, serpae tetras and a fish that cleans the algea. Which of the fish and how many would be the best for a 20 gallon betta aquarium. I read that I need to heat the aquarium for the betta for which fish

Answer 1

l found this link to be very useful

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/ebook.ht...

it is a free ebook for Tropical Fish

here is a list of easy to care for plants

http://www.guppies.com/forums/showthread...

l put the link for the plant list because it was too long of a list, to post it on here.

l would just like to say to you, that it is really good that you are doing alot of research first. that is great.

everything that you have listed would do excellent in a heated aquarium. l find that fluorescent light is best and you could put in grow lights for the plants.

Answer 2

i would put green pebals in the cage

Answer 3

Even though you would THINK a 'grow light' would be best. In most cases it's not.

Freshwater tanks with live plants need about 6,700K of light for 8-10 hours a day.

Use fine grained gravel, it will be easier for the plants to take ahold of the smaller rocks, what would be even better is if you mixed carribian(sp) sand with the gravel, the sand is black and black or dark rocks will provide your fish with a less stress environment. But anyway, the sand mixture will give your plants essential vitamins and minerals ensureing a healthy root system.

You will of course need a (preferably submersible) heater set to around 78F.

Good starter plants include: Java moss, Java Fern, Wisteria, Hygrophillia.

You can buy cuttings at most petstores, but I recommend buying mother plants as then you will have sprouts to plant from "her", for years to come!

The fish can be any of the combination you chose, any of those should work well together in an aquarium.

I hope this helps!

Answer 4

A betta needs water temps around 80F.  They are sometimes aggressive with other fish so you need to be careful on your choices and make sure your tank is not overcrowded so the betta doesn't feel threatened.

Swordtails are too much alike in body size and shape to be with a betta and barbs can tend to be fin nippers.  Platies would be fine, danios or most of the tetra family.  A few cory cats would work as bottom feeders.

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